THE MESS IN MAINE – SOME RESULTS WENT TO SPAM: In another inexcusable failure of the caucus system, “Maine Republican Party chairman Charlie Webster has admitted that the state party made numerous clerical errors in counting the state’s caucus results — even omitting some votes because emails reporting tallies ‘went to spam’ in an email account.” Tim Mak says Webster insists the errors did not change the outcome. The state GOP announced Romney had won Saturday, even though he led by fewer than 200 votes and not all municipalities had reported results. In Portland, for example, the state party’s results originally showed that Paul won by 15 votes when in reality Romney won by 15, Webster admitted. “We’ve corrected those clerical errors and will send those numbers out [soon],” he told Tim. http://bit.ly/wxcLOS

Story Continued Below

BARACK OBAMA TWEETS: “Our FEC report today: In January 2012, #Obama2012 raised a combined total of $29.1 million between committees… 98% were $250 or less.” That doesn’t include the $8.6+ million that the president expects to raise during his three-state western trip. Yesterday alone, with four stops in California, a Democratic official said the reelection effort took in about $4 million. The president’s Twitter page: http://bit.ly/zAgn4K. Item on this week’s fundraising: http://politi.co/yaGsst.

A ONE-TERM PROPOSITION – GOP CELEBRATES THIRD ANNIVERARY OF STIMULUS: Watch for lots of state Republican parties and Republican Senate candidates to attack Obama and Democratic incumbents on the stimulus through today. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is up with a one-minute web video to highlight the president’s statement about turning the economy around in three years. Here’s a page of quotes from Democrat senators running in 2012 on the stimulus: http://bit.ly/AuQbLr. The video: http://bit.ly/Auw78L.

Eager to be forward looking at the start of an election year, the main talking point of the coordinated attack on the White House will be this quote from the introduction to a Congressional Budget Office report released yesterday: “The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014.” The report: http://1.usa.gov/zkSFrz.

MORE ON #STIMULUSFAIL – RNC TRIES TO LOCALIZE CRITICISMS TO MAXIMIZE EARNED MEDIA: The Republican National Committee is rolling out a web video (“the promise that became a punch line”), a state-by-state breakdown of where the money went and a briefing book on the ways the undertaking did not live up to administration hype. A 24-page “comprehensive briefing book”: http://bit.ly/xpFcKL. A 22-page, state-by-state breakdown of stimulus failures: http://bit.ly/xaM2zc. A six-page hit accuses Obama of breaking the following five promises: unemployment’s not below 8%, infrastructure didn’t lead the recovery, one million electric cars did not get sold, poverty did not go down and the stimulus didn’t jumpstart a green economy: http://bit.ly/wj2ruz. Their one-minute web video includes a clip of Obama acknowledging that “shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected”: http://bit.ly/xoloKh.

“THE OLYMPIC BAILOUT” – DNC BRACKETS ROMNEY’S UTAH TRIP: Ahead of Mitt Romney's Saturday trip to Salt Lake City for the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Winter Olympics, the Democratic National Committee is challenging a central part of the frontrunner’s narrative. A new 2.5-minute web video is meant to cast doubt on whether he actually “saved” the games. The buzziest part of the video is decade-old footage of John McCain lambasting Romney’s Olympics as the worst kind of pork-barrel project. Then there’s a clip of Romney bragging about all the federal money he got while running for Massachusetts governor. The gist is that a federal rescue (er, “bailout”) made the Olympics work, not Romney’s leadership. Watch: http://bit.ly/z9kjIX.

** As Gingrich sets the bar at 15% for Michigan, Chicago ponders how they’d run against Santorum in a general and Foster Friess becomes a household name, here’s POLITICO’s Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE AIR WAR –

PRO-SANTORUM SUPER PAC GOES POSITIVE – “BOLD PLAN”: The Red White and Blue Fund is using its three quarters of a million dollar ad buy in Michigan to introduce Santorum to voters as a conservative family man. Watch the soft, 30-second spot: http://bit.ly/yz3241.

$2.5 MILLION – RESTORE OUR FUTURE AD BUYS PLACED ON THURSDAY: Ben Smith’s BuzzFeed reports on the biggest round of fresh buys yet from the pro-Romney Super PAC. From a Republican media-buying source: ARIZONA: - a $305,887 statewide broadcast and cable TV buy, for February 21 to 28. ALABAMA: - a $94,430 statewide broadcast TV buy, for February 21 to 28. MICHIGAN: - added $12,102 to their statewide cable buy, for February 16 to 20. – also placed a $591,179 statewide broadcast and cable TV buy, for February 21 to 28. MISSISSIPPI: - placed a $45,026 statewide broadcast buy, for February 21 to 27. TENNESSEE: - added to their statewide radio buy. The new flight total for radio is $39,197 starting February 15. - a $314,385 statewide broadcast TV buy for February 21 to 27. GEORGIA: - a statewide broadcast TV buy of $393,780 from February 21 to 27. OKLAHOMA: - placed a $150,439 statewide broadcast and cable TV buy for February 21 to 27. OHIO: - placed a $578,820 statewide broadcast TV buy for February 21 to 27.” http://bit.ly/zJy5PN

MARCH 1 DEBATE CANCELED – ROMNEY PULLED OUT: “Mitt Romney and Ron Paul told the Georgia Republican Party, Ohio Republican Party and CNN Thursday that they will not participate in the March 1 Republican presidential primary debate,” per CNN. “However, next week, CNN and the Arizona Republican Party will host all four leading contenders for the GOP nomination. That debate will be held in Mesa, Arizona on February 22 and will be moderated by CNN's John King." http://bit.ly/xam7OB

MITT WILL RAISE MONEY IN WASHINGTON INSTEAD: Boston cited a scheduling conflict in turning down the debate invitation. ABC’s Emily Friedman notes that the governor is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Bellevue, Washington, that night. Here’s the Facebook invitation: http://on.fb.me/xf8F0v.

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO TODAY: Santorum rallies in Shelby Township, Mich. at 11:15. Then he goes to Ohio for two Lincoln Day dinner speeches: 6 p.m. in Mason and 8 p.m. in Georgetown. Romney has a noon fundraiser and 1:45 rally in Boise. Paul rallies in Richland, Washington, Moscow, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash. Gingrich has flown to Georgia for a fundraiser and rally in Peachtree City. He’ll stay through the weekend. Details: http://politi.co/nKs8EW

PROGRAMMING NOTE: In honor of President’s Day, there will be no Score on Monday.

SANTORUM – OBAMA CAMPAIGN WEIGHING HOW TO DEAL WITH HIM: The Wall Street Journal’s Peter Nicholas writes that “Obama's re-election campaign has begun discussing whether to attack” Santorum. Santorum “doesn't come with the type of political baggage that Gingrich had,” said one Obama adviser. “He has the ability to go farther and is much more likely to be a potential nominee.” More: “Mark Penn, a strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, said in an interview that in ‘softening up Romney,’ Democrats risk opening a path for Mr. Santorum to ‘emerge as this fresh, new untouched face who could potentially represent a tougher opponent.’ The risk of attacking Mr. Santorum: elevating him further as a candidate dangerous enough to warrant the president's attention.”

YA THINK?!?! “One approach might be to highlight Mr. Santorum's socially conservative views and argue that they are outside of the mainstream,” Nicholas writes matter-of-factly. “Another might be to go after his economic positions.” http://on.wsj.com/x4gOfh

The Obama campaign sent an email to its Pennsylvania list asking for “recollections” of Santorum from his 16 years representing the state. This could help frame an attack down the road. http://wapo.st/wI15mZ

PREDICTION: This WSJ piece will be the first of a handful of stories from the tier-one papers over the slowish President’s Day weekend about how Chicago is thinking about how to deal with Santorum if he’s the nominee. They’ll all follow the same formula as the how-would-Obama-deal-with-Gingrich stories that came out before Christmas. For an example of the best in this genre, see Jeff and Jim’s New York Times A1 story from Dec. 8: http://nyti.ms/ySBsBz.

MICHIGAN MELEE –

DETROIT FREE PRESS HEADLINE – “SANTORUM SPEAKS AT AWKWARD GOP DINNER”: “At a Republican dinner in Oakland County, where Mitt Romney grew up, Rick Santorum was the featured speaker, but the reception was a bit awkward. Santorum had to share the program with Romney’s wife Ann and Gov. Rick Snyder, who officially endorsed Romney’s candidacy earlier today. Mitt Romney was not there. Santorum was last on the agenda, after Snyder, Ann Romney and a handful of other speakers.” http://on.freep.com/xDdUlD

THE AUTO BAILOUT – SHOTS FIRED BY SANTORUM: “Governor Romney supported the bailout of Wall Street and decided not to support the bailout of Detroit,” Santorum said at the Detroit Economic Club. “My feeling was that we should not support — the government should not be involved in bailouts, period. I think that’s a much more consistent position.” http://nyti.ms/xxiU2o

SNYDER WANTS ROMNEY TO TALK ABOUT THE BAILOUT LESS: “The way I look at it is, you’re armchair quarterbacking,” Romney’s top Michigan endorser, Gov. Rick Snyder, said last night at the end of a day when Romney talked about it quite a lot. “Why spend all the time on that when we have too much unemployment today? … That’s history, and let’s move forward, and let’s talk about who has good plans for the future of our country.” http://politi.co/zyReRr

GINGRICH SAID HE NEEDS TO BREAK 15%: “You have to break 15 percent,” Newt Gingrich said on Fox News yesterday. “It's a proportional representation state. I think we will do that. So I think we will pick up delegates in Michigan. And my prediction is that if Mitt Romney goes and attacks Santorum as negatively as he attacked me in Florida and elsewhere, that what you're going to see is he'll peel votes off Santorum, but they're going to come to me. They're not going to go to Romney.” Via GOP 2012: http://bit.ly/zeqJM2.

COULD ROMNEY LOSE? “That won’t happen,” Romney told reporters from Grand Rapids’ newspaper. He also came out for the Red Sox over the Tigers. Transcript: http://bit.ly/xmrhyp.

BOTH WAX NOSTALGIC – THE CONTRAST: “The two men are wooing Michiganders in unabashedly emotional terms — a notable departure from earlier contests, during which Romney’s economic bromides and his opponents’ strident ideological rhetoric defined the debate,” Alex Burns notes. “Now, the more prominent contrast is between Romney’s lofty Michigan political lineage and Santorum’s tightly-embraced Rust Belt identity as the grandson of a coal miner. Santorum’s pledge to revive the manufacturing sector is a core part of his campaign platform.” http://bit.ly/wniAsL

NO MENTION OF SANTORUM IN ROMNEY’S OHIO APPEARANCE: Romney’s first election-year visit to Ohio was a speech to 1,200 at a Lincoln Day dinner in Cuyahoga County, some of the most Democratic turf in the state. Cleveland Plain Dealer write-up: http://bit.ly/y2wTtJ.

THE ANATOMY OF A CABLE KERFULLE – WITH DONORS LIKE THESE…

FOSTER FRIESS ON MSNBC: The mega donor behind the pro-Rick Santorum Super PAC dismissed questions about his patron’s controversial views on women in combat, contraception and gay marriage. “People seem to be so preoccupied with sex,” he told Andrea Mitchell in the early afternoon. “On this contraceptive thing, my Gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

SANTORUM DISTANCED HIMSELF ON FOX: “Santorum told [Fox News’ Greta] Van Susteren that Friess made ‘a stupid joke’ and that it does not ‘reflect on the campaign or me,’” per CBS. “Van Susteren appeared unsatisfied with Santorum's response and said Friess is ‘0 and one’ in her book.’ … An uncomfortable-looking Santorum offered assurance that contraception will be permissible should he become president. ‘Not everything that I... disagree with morally should the government be involved in,’ Santorum said ‘People have the right to in this country and it certainly will be safe to [use contraception] in a Santorum presidency.’” Story: http://bit.ly/x6n5Wg Video: http://bit.ly/Afe7Nw.

THE DONOR CLARIFIES HIS COMMENT ON MSNBC: Friess went on MSNBC again in the 10 p.m. last night to clarify his comments. He sounded much more like a surrogate, noting that Santorum had said he would vote against state legislation to ban contraception and noting that in the Senate he’d voted for AIDS funding to Africa that included contraception. It was obviously a careful effort to try reassuring women. Watch: http://bit.ly/zQohjt.

SANTORUM PLAYS JEREMIAH WRIGHT CARD ON CBS: “Pressed by Charlie Rose on Foster Friess's Thursday comments, Pennsylvanian accuses the CBS host of ‘gotcha politics’ and using a ‘double-standard,’ invoking the President's ‘20-year’ relationship with Jeremiah Wright,” per Time’s Mark Halperin. Santorum: "When you quote a supporter of mine who tells a bad off color joke, and I'm somehow responsible for that? That's gotcha....Look, this is what you guys do. You don't do this with President Obama." More: "I’m not responsible for any comment that anyone who supports me makes." http://ti.me/zIa2H0

PAUL – BIG CROWDS IN WASHINGTON STATE: How the Seattle Post-Intelligencer led its story on his standard stump: “Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, preaching ploughshares as fellow GOP candidates brandish sabres, quoted returning military personnel describing the Afghanistan War as a ‘fake and a fraud’ when his packed house Sea-Tac rally broke into a chant seldom heard at Republican gatherings: ‘BRING THEM HOME! BRING THEM HOME!’ ‘Somebody asked me the other day, 'When should we bring them home?' I replied, 'As soon as we can get the ships over there,’ Paul declared, and the audience of more than 1,300 was on its feet again.” Great earned media, except for the mention of the newsletters in the fifth paragraph: http://bit.ly/wp4am3. The Tacoma News-Tribune notes that Paul supporters started lining up hours before the rally: http://bit.ly/z5OAnO.

THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE – NEW DETAILS ABOUT HOW ROMNEY HAS COURTED PAUL: “When Mr. Paul’s campaign jet broke down last year in Wolfeboro, N.H., Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, offered to let Mr. Paul, an aide and one of his granddaughters stay the night at their summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee. When Mr. Romney arrived later, he offered his jet to take them home to Texas. Mr. Paul, not wanting to impose, was grateful but declined both offers,” Rich Oppel reports on A14 of today’s New York Times. “I talk to Romney more than the rest on a friendly basis,” Mr. Paul said. “‘I throw Romney’s name out because he’s made a bigger attempt to do it. The others are sort of just real flat.’ He and Mr. Romney talk ‘all the time’ and ‘we’ve met all their kids.’ Once he telephoned Mr. Romney just as Mr. Romney was calling him. ‘Sometimes I’m never sure who issued a call,’ he said.” http://nyti.ms/AkzRsy

PAUL RAISES $1.2 MILLION WITH VALENTINE’S DAY MONEY BOMB: “Paul's campaign announced Wednesday that it had raised nearly $1.2 million since Valentine's Day, bringing in cash at nearly the same rate as rival Rick Santorum in the immediate aftermath of the former senator's victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado last week” per a write-up of a press release in The Hill that got picked up by the Drudge Report. http://bit.ly/y5JlY7

GINGRICH RAISED $2 MILLION ON THIS WEEK’S CALIFORNIA SWING, per The Washington Post’s Amy Gardner. http://wapo.st/w3xyOr

ROMNEY – POSTHUMOUS BAPTISM STORY DOGS HIM ANOTHER DAY: We’re late to the continuing saga over Ellie Wiesel’s public appeal to Romney to demand the Mormon Church cease the controversial practice of baptizing Holocaust victims after they die. The Washington Post’s Jason Horowitz profiles the excommunicated Mormon who discovered that Simon Wiesenthal’s parents had been posthumously baptized as Mormons: http://wapo.st/wYRu1d

WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS UP TO: “In the morning, the President will depart San Francisco, California en route Everett, Washington…Later in the morning, the President will tour a production facility and deliver remarks at a Boeing Plant in Everett, Washington where he will continue to discuss his blueprint for an economy built to last…the President will deliver remarks at a campaign event at a private residence…Later in the afternoon, the President will deliver remarks at a campaign event at The Westin Bellevue Hotel…In the evening, the President will return to Washington, DC.”

VEEPWATCH – CHRISTIE VETO OF GAY MARRIAGE BILL SETS STAGE FOR SHOWDOWN: “Even as Gov. Chris Christie’s threat of a ‘swift’ veto looms, gay rights activists basked [Thursday] after the state Assembly took final action on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey,” per the Star Ledger. “With supporters imploring lawmakers to make history, the lower house passed the bill after hours of debate on a day that began with protests and prayer vigils under gloomy skies outside the Statehouse.” http://bit.ly/AzZ5Xy

VEEPSTAKES – MCDONNELL MAY HAVE TO WEIGH IN ON PERSONHOOD: “The so-called ‘personhood bill’ defines life as beginning at conception and gives the fetus the same legal rights as an everyday citizen. It already passed the House of Delegates and now needs only Senate approval before it goes to McDonnell,” the Washington Examiner reports. “The bill opens the door for the state to ban abortion if the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade is ever overturned, and some opponents argue that the measure's broad parameters could ban some forms of birth control and the morning after pill. McDonnell last month reiterated his pro-life stance but said his staff still needed to confirm the constitutionality of the measure. The governor's office said Thursday that McDonnell still doesn't know if he'd sign the bill into law.A majority of state residents, 58 percent, oppose the personhood bill, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released in December, and 54 percent said they think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.” http://bit.ly/xrljk1

THE HOUSE – HISPANICS POISED FOR 2012 PICK-UPS: “Latinos are positioned to seize at least a handful of new House seats, thanks to redistricting. California has three new Hispanic-majority districts, and Texas, depending on the final outcome of legal wrangling over congressional maps, is expected to have one or two,” Alex Isenstadt reports. “Democrats also are fielding at least six strong Hispanic recruits in other districts currently represented by white members. And the GOP has a high-profile candidate of its own in former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who’s trying to unseat Rep. Lois Capps, a white Democrat. Taken together, the Hispanic delegation could see its ranks swell. Hispanic lawmakers currently hold 25 House seats, according to The Almanac of American Politics, and after the election, that number could reach well over 30.” http://politi.co/xDPD9j

THE GIFFORDS SEAT – JESSE KELLY LEADS GOP FIELD IN PRIMARY POLL: Republicans favor Jesse Kelly as their candidate for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona House seat according to a poll released first to Dave Catanese. “A Wenzel Strategies survey, paid for by Citizens United Political Victory Fund, shows Kelly is ahead of his nearest GOP primary challenger by close to 25 percentage points in the special election. The poll, taken Wednesday and Thursday of this week, puts Kelly at 43 percent to State Sen. Frank Antenori's 18 percent and sports commentator Dave Sitton's 10 percent. Twenty percent aren't sure…The primary is April 17, where anointed Democrat Ron Barber, Giffords' district director, is expected to advance to the special election general for the Democrats.” http://politi.co/y8Zu55

NEW YORK HOUSE – ROMNEY CAMPAIGN DISTANCES ITSELF FROM GRIMM: The New York Times reports as a follow-up on their A1 story about freshman Rep. Michael Grimm’s real estate deals that the Romney campaign, who he helped as a surrogate in New Hampshire, was distancing itself. “But on Thursday, a spokeswoman for Mr. Romney’s national campaign, Andrea Saul, indicated that Mr. Grimm would no longer play such a role in the campaign… ‘I can’t speak to Mr. Grimm’s personal schedule, but he is not an official surrogate for the campaign,’ she said in an e-mail.” That contradicted what Guy Molinari, the former Staten Island congressman who chairs Romney’s New York campaign, told the Times. Molinari responded to Andrea’s email: “I think she didn’t know what’s happening. They’re some distance removed from the real world.” He said Boston would be foolish if they didn’t keep using him. http://nyti.ms/w39WrF

CONVENTION HOTELS – FLORIDA WILL MAKE OUT NICER IN CHARLOTTE THAN TAMPA: The Democratic National Committee is putting Florida at the Marriott City Center this summer, a prime spot for delegates from the key swing state that’s close to the heart of convention activity. The Republicans haven’t announced their hotel sites yet, but the Florida delegation is likely to be in far less optimal digs at the convention they are hosting in Tampa. The delegation is being punished by the committee for holding their primary in January. Here’s the official link to the DNC hotel list: http://bit.ly/zNeBwn. The Charlotte Observer has an interactive map of all the DNC hotels: http://bit.ly/x5uKah. As a point of reference for what could happen to the RNC, this is what happened to Florida in 2008 at the Denver convention: http://bit.ly/ApxDoV.

FUN STORIES—

JON STEWART made fun of Santorum’s ad decrying Romney’s mudslinging on his show last night: http://gaw.kr/x7ZvRQ.

FRED UPTON REACTS TO KATE’S SI COVER: “I've got a lot of my colleagues asking if I was adopted,” the Michigan congressman said of his 19-year-old niece/Sports Illustrated cover girl on Fox News. http://politi.co/zN2XYs

COLBERT SUPER PAC HAS $815K ON HAND: “Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert’s super PAC has over $800,000 in the bank after raising $219,000 last month, almost entirely from small donors, and – just like a regular political committee – spent most of its cash on fundraising and consulting,” Ken Vogel writes. “But, despite Colbert’s shtick, his super PAC did not receive a single contribution in January that exceeded the $5,000 limit on regular political action committees, according to a report filed Thursday morning with the Federal Election Commission. And the PAC only reported one corporate contribution: a $250 donation from a New York City gourmet foods market called Kashkaval Foods LTD – not exactly General Electric.” http://politi.co/xsXREs

CODA – QUOTE OF THE DAY: “You had some very beautiful young women here that I used to come try and date.” – Mitt Romney to a crowd in Cleveland last night (he followed it with a humanizing story about a wedding prank) http://bit.ly/xQ3P07

Authors:

About The Author

James Hohmann is a reporter for POLITICO Pro.

He covered the 2012 presidential campaign from start to finish, authoring the daily Morning Score tipsheet for nearly two years as he reported from 23 states over the course of the primaries and general election. Through the fall, he traveled with Mitt Romney.

Hohmann spent 2010 chronicling the Republican Party’s drive to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He arrived from The Washington Post at the end of 2009. Previously he wrote for the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, the Dallas Morning News and The San Jose Mercury News.

An honors graduate of Stanford University, Hohmann studied American political history. He served as editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily and wrote an award-winning thesis about the 1976 Republican primaries and the political ascendancy of Ronald Reagan.